Love from the Sea
by bonavitaetgaudium
Summary: Christa wasn't expecting that the boy she saved from the cove was a merman! Now, he must adjust to his new life in her and her brother's home, for he's now forbidden to return home. He meets new friends, and he must try to keep his secret. Well, that isn't going to work out so well in a seaside town. ItalyxOC, other charactersxOCs, T cuz I'm paranoid. NO YAOI.


**AN: first published fanfic with my OC Christa! She's my half of a pairing with Italy. If you look on my deviantArt account, her MMD model will be up soon for you to see ^^ Enjoy the story, and please pardon the fact that there are a lot of merpeople in this. I do not own Hetalia~!**

The night was beautiful. Stars dotted the sky and the sea was calm. Christa watched this from her balcony and grabbed her camera. Snapping a photo of the cove, she laid back in the lounge chair. Below, there was splashing, and then someone screamed. Christa ran to her railing and looked down to see two young men arguing physically, one in the water and the other out. "Get out, both of you!" she shouted in warning, grabbing her handgun which she was trained with.

The man out of the water ran, but the other one lay in the water, unmoving. Christa ran outside as fast as her legs would take her. The unconscious man in the cove was no older than Christa, making him still a boy. There was a large gash on his forehead where the other man had struck him with a rock. He was bare-chested, and Christa saw that there was no hair on his body. His auburn hair flared out on the rock, but the things that caught Christa's eye were the silver cross around his neck and the flash of dark green floating lazily in the cove.

She nearly screamed when, upon further inspection, the dark green revealed itself to be a tail. The boy had a tail instead of legs. He stirred, a soft, pained moan slipping from his lips. Reaching out over the rocks, Christa experimented and touched the scaly tail. It was smooth to the touch, but she felt a deep cut in the sleek surface. A light flickered on in the villa.

"Chris? Are you alright? I heard you shout," her brother called.

"Yes, Niko, I'm quite alright. Someone was down by the cove but I scared them off." Although she couldn't see him, she could tell he was smirking.

"Va bene, sorellina. I'm going back to sleep." The light turned off, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Christa looked back at the merman, or merboy, she supposed, and made up her mind.

He's heavy! she thought at she dragged him along. Not once had he stirred, but she wasn't going to let anyone, not even something that shouldn't even exist, die. Lugging him up the stairs was the worst part; the wrought-iron spiral staircase was hard enough to navigate without dragging someone with you. Getting past Niko's bedroom wasn't hard; he was the deepest sleeper she knew. Christa ran the water in her bathtub, then slipped the now-awakening merman in the water. His eyes fluttered, then opened to reveal honey-brown orbs with mysterious green and blue flecks.

He started when he saw Christa, and he tried to lift himself out. When he found his thin arms too weak to do so, he settled for curling himself up as far away from the human in front of him as possible.

The water stung the deep gashes in his tail, and he cringed, flipping his smarting tail out of the water. Christa flinched when the warm water hit her, but she didn't leave. Instead, she grabbed gauze and antiseptic and approached cautiously. With all the movies in those days, she couldn't be sure what he would do.

The merman didn't move; he was too mortified to even dare moving. "What is your name?" she asked.

"Feliciano," he said very quietly. His voice sounded like a babbling brook in spring, a very light and calming sound. "Where am I?"

Christa was surprised at his proclivity for the English language. "My home. I brought you here because you were hurt." Feliciano uncurled his body and lay down in the water, putting his long green tail over the lip of the tub. He closed his eyes and his face became peaceful. Christa took the antiseptic and gauze and daubed at his wounds.

He hissed, but he knew in his heart that she was trying to help him. Teeth and fists clenched in pain, but he stayed as silent as possible. "Why did you help me? I'm not a human," he commented after a time.

"A person's a person. They are no matter what they are." Feliciano furrowed his brows in slight confusion at this kindness. "What were you doing in the cove?"

"I was trying to see the bursting lights in the skies before my grandfather kept me below the surface for the rest of my life." He winced as he said this. "He's going to kill me when I get back. He hates the surface more than anything, except humans themselves."

"Would he hate me?"

"Yeah, he doesn't care what a human does that's good, all he sees is what harm they've done." His eyes grew foggy in sadness, and Christa felt horrible for him. She finished tending to his tail, after which he playfully flicked water at her.

His hand, worn soft by his life under the sea, reached out and slender fingers wrapped around her silky hair. "Is something the matter?" she asked.

"I've never felt hair above water before. But now that I think about it, I've never felt much of anything above water before." He leaned against the edge of the tub anxiously. "I've heard about animals that have hair or fur all over their bodies, like seal pups! Do they really exist, animals like that?" Christa smiled at his naïveness, then whistled. A clicking sound approached, and a fluffy, long-haired German Shepherd entered and sat obediently next to his owner. Feliciano gasped in both surprise and delight.

"Good boy, Volta." Christa gently grabbed his wrist and placed his hand on the dog's head. Volta's fur was soft, and Feliciano ran his hand over the animal's side. He'd never seen a dog before, and he thought it was very cute. "Your hand is completely dry, but it's been the water almost this entire time."

Feliciano glanced at the dry skin and shrugged. "I suppose it's a benefit, or curse of being a merman." His eyes drooped, and Christa shooed Volta away.

_"Good night, Feliciano, and sweet dreams."_

**AN:** **whew! Anyway, the movie that's alluded to is Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, and Feliciano's 'bursting lights' are fireworks. R&R please!**


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